Mostly Murders

Night falls. A full moon ripens in the black expanse amid a dusting of cold stars. Autumn Springs is quiet as a graveyard.

Rose DuBois is enjoying her autonomy, keeping herself busy in her retirement and keeping her friend Miller at arm’s length whenever he tries to move beyond friendship and into dating territory. But when one of her friends is found dead after a supposed accident, Rose is among the first to suspect that something truly sinister is going on at previously peaceful Autumn Springs Retirement Home.

A bloody slasher with lots of heart and dark humour about ageing, living and dying. Rose is a very compelling and complex main character who had my heart right from the very beginning. She is both tough and strong and vulnerable and weak at the same time, and it is impossible not to cheer for her as horror descends on Autumn Springs and the residents begin glancing at each other, wondering who will be picked off next.

At some point Rose jokingly refers to herself as “a black Angela Lansbury”, but make no mistake, this is no cozy mystery and definitely not for the faint of heart. This is a slasher horror filled with brutal deaths, and a staggering number of victims are killed in ways that are both horrifying and heartbreaking.

If you ever wanted to read a slasher movie-inspired horror story with supernatural elements set in a retirement home, this is your chance. It is engaging, suspenseful and a great example of the fact that life doesn’t end at retirement, that older people can be as entertaining as younger people, and that one should never, ever underestimate the fury of a survivor fighting to protect herself and her family.

Horror – Mystery – Thriller